Salads

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When I was growing up, lettuce leaves were used mainly for decoration. We hardly had fresh lettuce in the shops and the only lettuce I remember is iceberg. It's a different story now as a variety of lettuce is grown in the green houses of Iceland.

I often create a monster salad for dinner or lunch. By monster salad I mean salad with everything in it but just as an example I would include lettuce of course, cherry tomatoes, peppers, avocado, nuts, seeds, oranges or melons, feta cheese, olives and the list goes on. It's only when I am away from my salads for a lengthy period that I realize how much I miss them. Whenever we travel to Kenya or other places in Africa we try to stay away from the fresh lettuce as they can be contaminated if the water is not clean. Obviously it depends on where you are staying because if you are staying in a nice hotel, you don't have to worry. Buying lettuce by the roadside however would equal a bad tummy for sure. In Kenya, vinegar is used widely and it is almost always used as a dressing on salads. I don't know why but they do this to their tomatoes, peppers and onions as well. And it drives me nuts as I don't like vinegar on salads. So after perhaps 2 weeks of travelling I am literally crying out for a fresh salad (and apples and grapes as well as neither are widely grown in the places we travel in Africa). I try not to complain too much as it would be very rude to the locals and experiencing poverty all around you are just thankful that you HAVE food in your mouth. But as soon as I come home I run to the shops and create a monster salad.